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JERUSALEM – Israeli tanks and troops swept into two more West Bank towns last night, and police said they had averted a major suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

Authorities said the 4-day-old crackdown on terrorism had resulted in more than 700 arrests – and they have dozens more suspects trapped in sites such as Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters.

Israeli troops established control over the West Bank town of Qalqilya, and moved into two other terrorist strongholds, Tulkarem and Bethlehem.

Outside Ramallah, Israeli forces attacked Palestinian security headquarters with tanks and machine guns, Palestinians said. The building was set afire in the battle, which ended just before daybreak.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told special U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni Sunday night that no one wanted for terrorism would be allowed to escape from the Ramallah area.

A major confrontation is developing there between trapped terror suspects and Israeli forces.

Israeli military and secret-service officials believe as many as 70 suspected terrorists are hiding out in the nearby town of Beitunya, in the offices of Jibril Rajoub, Arafat’s chief of security in the West Bank.

Other suspects on Israeli lists are believed to have taken refuge inside Arafat’s headquarters, which Israeli troops began to seal off with barbed wire.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said his government’s decision last Thursday to “isolate” Arafat was a mistake.

When he asked Sharon to allow foreign diplomats and others to see Arafat, Sharon rebuffed him, sources said.

Meanwhile, Jerusalem Police Chief Micky Levy credited one of his officers with averting a major attack when he stopped a car at a checkpoint.

When asked for ID, the driver detonated a powerful bomb at his feet, killing himself and fatally wounding the officer.

Levy said it appeared the driver was on his way to carry out a bombing in the heart of Jerusalem.

In other developments:

* Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld harshly criticized Iran, Iraq and Syria for “inspiring and financing a culture of political murder and suicide bombing” in the Mideast.

He cited reports that Iraq had offered stipends of tens of thousands of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

* Anti-Israel protests broke out in Libya, Jordan, Sudan, Lebanon and Yemen. In Cairo, 30 protesters were arrested near the Israeli Embassy.

* Libya’s Moammar Khadafy led a march in Tripoli and asked Arab nations bordering Israel to allow his troops in to join the Palestinian uprising.